One of Mr Abbott's key policies on asylum seekers is to turn boats back to Indonesia when it is safe.

However, Indonesian foreign minister Marty Natelegawa, who was also in the meeting, says Mr Abbott did not raise the policy.

It is the second time since June that Mr Abbott has had talks with Mr Yudhoyono but failed to raise his proposal to turn asylum seeker boats around.

Opposition immigration spokesman Scott Morrison says the issue was discussed later with Mr Natelegawa, but is refusing to say what the response was.

Mr Morrison says the meeting with Mr Yudhoyono did include a discussion on people smuggling issues.

"The content of these discussions is private, as it should be," he said.

"The opportunity to discuss a broad range of matters at such a senior level at both of these meetings is almost unprecedented for an opposition and has been invaluable, serving to add further to the understanding and trust that already exists.

"This will be critical to working in partnership with our friends in Indonesia to address people smuggling if the Coalition is elected."

Foreign Minister Bob Carr says the Coalition's policy represents a risk to bilateral relations and should have been raised directly with Mr Yudhoyono.

"I think it's utterly extraordinary of Tony Abbott to go to Jakarta and not raise the biggest single change in policy towards Indonesia he's promising to commit to," he said.

"It would cause a major concern in Jakarta."

'More engagement'

During his speech Mr Abbott said he was confident there would be cooperation between the two countries on border protection.

He says Australia's relationship with Indonesia needs "far more engagement and attention to detail" than the current Government has sometimes given it.

"I mean focusing on the relationships and the issues that really matter to us rather than the ones that just happen to be in the news," he said.

"Now, it is a function of geography as much as Indonesia's fault that the vast majority of the 27,000 illegal boat arrivals to Australia have come via this country."

Mr Abbott says people smuggling has become a "first order economic and security issue".

"Over the past four years, border protection blowouts have cost almost $5 billion," he said.

"The increased humanitarian intake that the Government has announced to help cope with people smuggling will cost an extra $1.3 billion.

"As things stand, Australia has partially sub-contracted its immigration program to people smugglers.

"That's why stopping the boats is so important and why the next Coalition government won't rest until our borders are once more secure."

Mr Abbott also says a Coalition government "as far as humanly possible" would try to deal with its Indonesian counterparts "as a candid friend" and never make decisions that impact on Indonesia without discussing with them first.

He says if Australia wants Indonesia to help out on people smuggling, then Australia has to help more with developing Indonesia.

"If Australia wants Indonesian cooperation in dealing with our first order issues, we need to cooperate even more closely with Indonesia on its first order issue," he said.

The hastily arranged visit came after the memorial for the first Bali bombings which was held on Friday.

Indonesia is becoming more and more powerful as an economic powerhouse and it's far bigger than Australia.

Gone are the days where Indonesia's happy to be sort of told off or told what to do by Australia. So if Tony Abbott attempts to press his case for towing boats back to Indonesia, that's unlikely to be met with much enthusiasm at all.

His claim that his government if he got into power would discuss policies and not have surprise decisions, if you like, for the Indonesian government - that's likely to resonate well.

But whether that will transfer into actual policy down the track is yet to be seen.